Fiji: Transformed? --by Lynn Green

I recently flew exactly halfway around the world to participate in six days of meetings with the Global Leadership Team Executive and the President's Gathering, then I flew back. I can assure you that changing 12 time zones and then going back is tough on the body.

So what was the point of traveling to the relatively remote island of Fiji for some global meetings? The simple explanation is that when we were meeting together as a GLT last summer, we sensed God speaking to us that we should have the Executive meetings in Fiji. But why should He say such a thing? I believe the primary reason is that Fiji is a nation where God is at work laying new foundation stones.

This was illustrated as I arrived. On the car journey to our meeting place, the YWAM leader there explained how recent evangelistic events in Fiji have been attended by overwhelming crowds. In fact, 20 percent of the entire population jammed the national stadium for the last night of the recent visit of an international evangelist. Tens of thousands give their lives to Christ, and there were numerous healings.

That was a strong reminder that when we speak of God's power to transform nations, we must remember that it requires firstly significant numbers of the nation's citizens coming to faith in Christ Jesus. From that point, social structures, government, economic and legal factors can begin to change. The evidence suggests that Fiji could well be on the road to transformation, but some leaders also caution us that racial tensions and injustices threaten to boil over with the slightest provocation. So it really seems that Fiji and its future is hanging in the balance.

YWAM's role in the future of Fiji could be significant. We were there because YWAM's Impact World Tours has felt led to focus on Fiji as have a number of outreach teams and the U of N. During the course of this next year, outreach teams are planning to go to all the Fijian islands and then the Impact World Tour will begin major evangelistic campaigns in 2007.

A few months ago, one of the "chief of chiefs" of Fiji visited Loren Cunningham and other leaders in Kona, Hawaii. The purpose of the chief's visit to Hawaii was to extend an official request on behalf of his people that YWAM should come and help them. They particularly asked that a campus of the U of N should be established in Fiji.

During our visit, we had the privilege of receiving a gift of about 100 acres of land given as a site for the U of N campus. We had the joy of meeting Chief Ratu Osea, his elders and the people of one of his villages. I was surprised to find a group of people who live and worship together in a way that, to a great extent, has been untouched by the development of modern life over recent decades. However, all that is about to change.

For more then four generations, this village has had a sense they were stewarding land God has given them for a special purpose. Then, in 1973, a visiting minister had a prophetic word for them: that their village would be a place where the nations would come and go. That stirred a great faith in the heart of these villagers. They have been praying faithfully, even fasting and praying on a nearby prayer mountain, for these decades. When they heard about YWAM and the U of N a couple of years ago, they realized this could be the fulfillment of their prophetic word and their intercessory prayer. The chief and his people then determined to give YWAM 100 acres of land, including the prayer mountain, for the development of the campus.

We received the land in a day-long ceremony which involved all the elders engaging in a beautiful series of covenants expressed through chants and the exchange of a whale tooth. The gift of the land is all the more remarkable because it is a short drive from the International Airport at Nadi. It is situated on a beautiful bit of coastline that has been completely undeveloped until recently. Now, within a few months, a large Marriot resort opens and seven other resorts are planned for the immediate area.

Of course, these factors make the gift all the more valuable and significant. As we prayed there with the elders, I had a strong sense that the Lord was calling us to join together with them to stand for righteousness in an environment of rapid development

of tourist trade. Development does not have to mean a decline in righteousness. Part of learning to disciple nations is to discover together how to maintain a standard of righteousness when prosperity comes to previously poor communities.

--Lynn Green is YWAM's Executive Chairman

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